Going to BlogHer? Don’t miss out!

Wondering what Wiley is doing at BlogHer this year?  Well, we’ve got a great offering for ya…

Our rock star photography author Erin Manning will be hosting a FREE photography workshop for a select number of attendees.  Join us for a lunchtime outing to explore and learn about digital photography techniques and quick fixes to improve the quality of your photos without the need for expensive editing software (lunch will be provided for all participants).  More details can be found here. 

Don’t wait!  This will fill up, and fill up soon!

Sick Bay

The lack of bloggy newness here can be attributed to the fact that IT Boy and I have both been under the weather.   It started about a week ago, and for me, it came on top of a month of really heinous allergies.  I thought it was just a build up of pollen resistance, or a reaction to the non-stop rain we have been having.  Unfortunately, I quickly realized it was a cold.  A bad cold.  IT Boy spiked a fever on and off, with a cough, sniffles and general aches and pains.  I stayed home most of the week, but was able to work at home a bit of the time.  Boy missed school and therapy for the week.

Before this, we had been running at a frantic pace and it was about to get worse.  Soccer Girl has a lot of end of season activities, plus she’s moving up from elementary school to middle school, and that’s a social milieu in itself.   I had to bail out on a number of commitments because I just couldn’t get it together.  FORGET about the gym, that’s a distant memory.

But don’t worry, it’s not the swine flu…we went to the doctor and he assured us that it was just the junk, not the piggy, and this too should pass.  Here’s a look at Boy in the waiting room of the  doctor’s office.  He’s singing the Barney theme song, but the lyrics are, “I love me, I love me.”  No self esteem issues here. 

I love me, I love me, someone get me some Tylenol.

Soundtrack of Your Life

Since I am all about reuse, I bring to you content originally seen in a Facebook note…

Pick the “top twenty” songs for the “soundtrack of your life”!

You can write in NA for anything not applicable (e.g. #2 if you’re an only child or #10 if you’re single) or come up with an alternate category for that number.

1. Song that reminds you of a parent (or grandparent): “Sprits in the Material World” by The Police. Mom doesn’t like anything not classical, but she thinks this song is da bomb. “Can’t you hear the syncopation?!?” “Hit the Road, Jack” by Ray Charles for my dad. No, we don’t share the same taste in music either.

2. Song that reminds you of a (step) sibling: “Superstitious” – Stevie Wonder

3. Song that reminds you of childhood: “Crazy on You” – Heart

4. Song that reminds you of high school: “Rock n Roll High School” – The Ramones

5. Song that reminds you of college: “Situation” – Yaz

6. Song that reminds you of a former teacher: “Imagine” – John Lennon

7. Song that reminds you of a former coworker: “Reasons to be Cheerful (Part 3)” – Ian Dury and the Blockheads

8. Song that reminds you of an old friend: “Heartbreaker” – Pat Benetar

9. Song that reminds you of a former sweetheart: “Open Arms” – Journey

10. Song that reminds you of your significant other : “Margaritaville” – Jimmy Buffet

11. Song you danced to at your (or someone else’s) wedding: “Crazy” – Patsy Cline

12. Song you have to dance to even if you’re alone: “Pump It Up” – Elvis Costello – I danced to this one all alone at the Tower Festival in London, and with my friend Liz at Jones Beach!

13. Song you have to sing when it comes on the radio: “Tainted Love” – Soft Cell – oy, the shame!

14. Song you can’t believe you know all the lyrics to: “The Magnificent Seven” – The Clash

15. Song you can never remember all the lyrics to: “It’s the End of The World As We Know It” – REM

16. Song that reminds you of a good time: “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” -The Police

17. Song that reminds you of a bad time: “She’s Lost Control” – Joy Division. Bonus answer: “How Soon is Now” – The Smiths

18. Song that reminds you of a special time: “Wild Night” – John Mellencamp

19. Your theme song: “Love Song” – The Cure

20. Song you want played at your funeral: “Back in Black” – AC/DC

IT Girl’s “World Famous” Pancakes

Most everyone who follows my Twitter feed has noticed me on a Saturday or Sunday talking about making pancakes for the family.  It’s a weekend tradition that won’t seem to die.  And that’s a good thing. 

Seeing Al’s adventures in pancake making had me chuckling a bit.  I used to make Bisquick pancakes until I started using an Alton Brown recipe.  About a year ago I was too lazy to create the mix and used Bisquick.  Both Mr. IT and Soccer Girl protested, saying that they really preferred my homemade batch and wouldn’t I please go back to making that.

So I did.  I prefer it because there are no preservatives or other stuff mucking up the mix – just pure honest ingredients.  Alton’s recipe has gotten altered along the way, so I am hoping that I am in fair use when I present to you this adaptation…

The Mix:

• 6 cups whole wheat flour (you can also use 1/2 wheat and 1/2 AP)
  1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  1 tablespoon baking powder
  1 tablespoon kosher salt
  2 tablespoons sugar

Combine all of the ingredients in a lidded container. Shake to mix. Use the mix within 3 months.

The Pancakes:

• 3 eggs, separated
• 1 cup plain yogurt (prefer lowfat or full fat to fat free)
• 1 cups milk
• 1/2 stick melted butter 
• 2 cups  dry Pancake Mix (see above)
• 1 very ripe banana
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (or blueberries, if in season) 

Whisk together the egg whites, yogurt and milk in a small bowl. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the melted butter.  Combine the mixtures from the two bowls and whisk.  Mash banana and add to the mixture.  Add dry pancake “mix” and stir till just mixed.  Drop in chocolate chips (or blueberries, or whatever)  and mix gently.

Lightly butter the fry pan. Drop pancake batter in pan and cook till bubbles form on edges.  Flip and cook the other side.  Serve immediately or place plate in warm oven and keep them there.  remove to a towel-lined baking sheet and cover with a towel. Hold in a warm place for 20 to 30 minutes.

ENJOY!  If you try them, let me know what you think.  Feel free to add your own improvements to the recipe – that’s what this is all about!

BEA Day 0

Wanted to post a couple of notes from BEA (BookExpo America), which took place this past weekend.  The Expo part runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  BEA holds educational sessions on Thursday, as does the ABA who run their “Day of Education”.  Hence, I call it “Day 0″.

The sessions are pretty hit or miss.  Some are good, some are just dreadful, and few are really great.  Because I tweeted enough about the really awful ones, let me focus on some of the good ones.

Tim O’Shaughnessy from Living Social gave a talk about what publishers need to think about when it comes to social media. Yawn, right? No, not really.  He brought up a lot of interesting ways to think about using social media to talk about books, certainly much of it using applications created by Living Social like Visual Bookshelf.  However, it was stuff that a lot of the people in the room didn’t realize was possible.  I definitely plan on reconnecting with Tim and his crew to talk about promotions for some of my upcoming titles.

Next, we had a lull in the interesting presentation department until the Tina Brown CEO roundtable.  What a treat this was!  An intelligent, sharp and often controversial woman talking publishing with the CEOs of Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Perseus, and HarperCollins.  It was interesting to hear their perspectives – for instance, when asked what they felt was the best way to move books, each agreed that nothing beats front of store placement, because of the visibility with customers and the “industry buzz” it delivers.  It beats any review, NY Times add, or even (gasp) social media.  Not sure that applies to all books across the board, but it certainly echoes my feeling about the importance of out of section placement (in tech, we don’t often get front of store play).

The neatest part?  Tina had mentioned that she was losing her voice and would be replaced at sometime in the presentation with her husband, publishing legend Harry Evans.  Sure enough, just after the mid-point of the session, Harry came on stage to much applause and seamlessly picked up where his wife left off.

The last session was the Editor’s buzz picks.  6 editors from various trade houses got up and talked about their favorite book for fall.  It was so much fun to hear these editors who have worked so closely with their authors on these projects talk so eloquently and passionately about their projects.  The best part here was that 4 of the 6 books were available in galleys outside the room, and I was able to snag the 5th book at a signing on Friday.  My next BEA post will be on these and other books that *I* think are buzz worthy.

Boy Meets Bob-Bob

Regular readers of this blog know that IT Boy is a huge fan of SpongeBob Squarepants.  “Bob-bob”, as he calls him, is the only TV show he will sit and watch.  As such, we own a bit of paraphernalia related to pineapple under the sea guy and are avid members of his cult.

Recently, a gas station in our town reopened after a long period of construction.  To promote their business, they had a series of costumed characters hanging out out front.  To tell you that my peeps had my back was an understatement – we got tons of phonecalls at all hours of the day from friends telling us that we had to get Boy down there because Mickey Mouse/Elmo/SpongeBob were hanging out there. 

Once, I stopped for gas there and rolled down the window so Boy could sing the theme song for Bob-bob.  He danced.  Boy sang.  It was cute.

Some people in our tiny village complained about the traffic they generated.  I thought it was cute, and entertained the Boy, so what was the harm?  We have traffic anyhow, with or without the characters, so seriously, lighten up.

The station eventually had a formal grand opening weekend.  There was a DJ playing horrifically loud music, a monster truck, and NASCAR car, and the return of the characters.  I decided to take Boy down there to commune with his homeboy.  I dressed him in a SB shirt for the occasion, drove into the village, parked across the street and walked him to the station.  In the end, this was as far as we made it to Bob-bob.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I admit, he was a bit freaked out.  It’s not like I thought he would run over and hug him.  Soccer Girl had a well documented fear of costume characters, which meant shopping at Stew Leonard’s (where costumed cows roam the aisles) was a challenge, at best.  So this didn’t surprise me. 

At least he wasn’t crying.  He was flapping, for sure, but also really really excited.  Plus, he’s little, and SB is BIG.  So I think that contributed to his general overstimulation.  As well, you can blame the DJ with the horrifically loud music. 

In any case, he was talking about it the whole 2 minute car ride home.  “I saw BobBob, I saw BobBob.  BOB-BOB!!!”  Which, when it comes down to it, is the only thing that matters. 

Oh, and a special shout-out to the folks at Stars bagels - I really think it was unnecessary and rather rude to tape a gigantic “YOU ARE PARKED ILLEGALLY” sign on my car.  I parked there for all of 10 minutes, so I could safely walk my 2 year old across the street.  You were getting ready to close, there were NO cars in your parking lot, and I certainly wasn’t taking the space from a paying customer.  In fact, when I got back to my car I was planning on getting my wallet in order to purchase some end-of-day bagels for breakfast the next morning.  After seeing that rather nasty sign, I decided not to.  In fact, I have decided to NEVER visit your store again.   Have a nice day, ya meanies.

Family Fun Day for ECAD

At the end of April (yes, it takes me THAT long to download pictures from my camera), we attended Family Fun Day in support of East Coast Assistance Dogs, ECAD for short.  ECAD is an organization that trains and provides assistance dogs to those in need.  It’s a great organization that throws a super party, and we are always happy to go, even though it has to be squeezed in between soccer games.

They host the event on on the Dobbs Ferry waterfront and have games, silent auctions, food, arts and crafts, and more.  This year, it took place on a super hot day.  We were afraid IT Boy was going to throw up from the heat (that’s just how he rolls) so we didn’t stay too long.  We did however make time for the one highlight of the day, Smooch a Pooch.  Check it out….

We waited 10 minutes in the heat to take the picture, but it was totally worth it to see the girl who used to be petrified of pooches snuggle up to this one. 

BTW, we have friends who host ECAD dogs for weekends to help socialize them.  Small commitment, big rewards.  If you’re in the Westchester area, and want to get involved, check out their website.

Star Trekking

Have you seen it?  Have you seen it?

If you haven’t, ye be warned there are spoilers ahead, matey…

Anyhow, for those living under a rock, the new Star Trek movie opened last weekend.  A movie I’ve been waiting a LONG time to see, and talking about for a long time.  Was it worth the wait?  Hell yes, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

You see, I’m a Trekker.  Or a Trekkie.  Don’t really care which one you use, it’s me.  Admittedly, I *liked* the original Trek, but it was really Next Generation that got me hooked for good.  I watched the others, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, Voyager, certainly, but there was nothing like ST:TNG for me.  My dad too, as you can see from the picture below:

The family that LL&P together...

 

 

 

 

 

 

  In fact, one of the highlights of my 40th birthday in Vegas was hitting the Star Trek experience.  Yes, the picture is blurry, but it was only because Mr. IT was so excited to be there that he was shaking.  Yeah, that was why…

 

 

 

  Anyhoo…

With the release date looming, I started making plans.  I had to attend Wiley’s sales conference the week of May 4th, but was able to return home the night of the 7th.  Certainly, I could have planned to catch a midnight showing somewhere, but midnight showings that aren’t Rocky Horror don’t hold much love for me.  No, it would be Friday, the official release day for the movie, that I would plan to see it.

I started Tweeting and emailing friends to see if they were planning on going and when.  Most were not thinking they would get it to see it before Sunday, if not the following weekend.  Horrors!  That simply would. not. do.  *Maybe* I could have waited till Saturday, but certainly not a whole week.

What to do, what do to.  Go see it alone on Friday certainly became the back up plan.  Until I remembered.  The Next Generation.

Soccer Girl=The Next Generation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was time for Soccer Girl to step up to the plate for her dose of Geek.  For really, why do we have kids in the first place if not to pass on our legacies and treasures.  Star Trek certainly qualifies! 

I decided to take her to a showing after school that Friday.  A movie date for us!  I bought tickets to the local fake IMAX in advance, to insure we’d have good assigned seats.  When we showed up, a bit early I might add, there were only a handful of other people in the theatre, and the usher brought us to sit next to some other guy.  I laughed, he laughed, and we put 2 seats in between us.  Soccer Girl looked around and asked where the other women were.  Other guy laughed.  A lot. 

Eventually, the theatre filled, 80% men, 15% women, and 5% that I couldn’t tell in the dark what they were but it was entirely possible they were Ferengi. 

How did we like the movie?  I loved it.  Kirk was just nicely over the top, and Zachary Quinto (who I loved on “24″ as Adam – way before most of you discovered him in “Heroes”, thank you very much) was a pretty good Spock.  It’s hard to play someone who is supposed to be in control of their emotions without detaching yourself.  I like seeing “Spock Prime” in there, though many found that ruined the illusion too much.  I’m thrilled that they broke with canon through that black hole thing, and can establish a new canon alongside the old one.  Brings up so many interesting possibilities.  My only “eeeehhhh” moment was offing Vulcan – I thought that was a pretty bold move for a rookie, if I do say so myself Mr. Abrams.  SG liked it a lot too, but she did cover her eyes through some of the scary parts, and when Kirk was getting busy with the green Starfleet Academy chick.  She also thought it was pretty cool that her mom brought her 9 year old self to a PG-13 movie.  Whatever did it for her, I don’t care.  Her words coming out of the theatre were, “Is there going to be a sequel?”

Oh, I hope so.  I hope so!

LL&P

In Bloom

The house across the street from us has the most beautiful flowering tree.  Sure, it probably has a name, as well as as kingdom, phylum and species and all that, but to me, it’s a flowering tree.  I don’t possess a great deal of knowledge when it comes to plant-like creatures.

Anyhow, it is a beautiful tree at any time of the year, but most especially in the early spring.  Driving around town a few weeks ago, I noticed many of the dogwood and cherry blossom trees (see! I do know a few names) blooming, but not “our” tree.  Our tree was taking it’s time.  And I waited for it.  I watched, every day, for signs of it’s magificence.  I worried that it would be in full bloom while I was away in Florida for our sales meeting, but it hit pre-peak right before I left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can still see a few red buds, but for the most part, it was bloomin’.  It made me happy, thinking about spring.  Amazed in the knowledge that this tree is quiet 50 weeks of the year, and goes into overdrive for 2 weeks, and that’s enough to get us to pay attention.

Of course, our cherry blossom and dogwood are no slouch either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reminds me to take a minute and watch the flowers.  Not smell them, just watch them, because otherwise I would sneeze.  But take time and be a part of the change of seasons.  Life goes by too fast otherwise.

Riding to Glory, the Soggy Edition

On May 3 (that’s 2 Sunday’s ago – was it really that long ago?!?) , I participated in AND FINISHED the 5 Boro Bike Ride. 42 miles baby.  But that ain’t the whole story.

Let me go back a bit here.  I signed up for this ride a few months ago along with 5 other friends.  The intention was to have something to train for in spin class, and to give me a reason to get out on my bike.  Also, to have some fun with friends riding on city streets that normally aren’t closed to traffic.

Flash forward to May 2, the day before the race.  I’m getting bummed because the weather forecasts are calling for rain both days of the weekend, with Sunday potentially being worse.  Certainly, we can ride in the rain, but who really wants to?  Saturday ends up being really really nice, and we think, hey, they got the forecast wrong today, tomorrow should be fine.  And when we wake up, we hear the weatherpeople say that the rain should hold off until the afternoon.

Great, we think.  We’ll be finished LONG before the afternoon, and it will all be ok.  We get up on Sunday morning and drive in 2 cars into the city.  Our plan is to park in Lower Manhattan and ride up the West Side Highway, cutting over on 57th street to meet the tour in Central Park.  That will help us get a jump on things, and avoid the areas where it’s most crowded and biking gets difficult.  On the way in, we notice rain drops.  But we are not deterred.  No, we press onward.  We park the cars and begin our ride uptown, all the way dodging raindrops.  We think, it’s ok, the rain will let up soon.  He’s the (albeit blurry) view from 57th St and 6th Avenue looking north:

Oh yeah, it’s wet.  Most of us have foul weather gear under our tour vests.

The ride itself was a blast.  After heading through the park, we took one of the bridges into the Bronx, and then took the other one back into Manhattan and headed up the FDR.  But first, a rest break…gotta get some water and LaraBars!

OK, so my pictures aren’t that great.  They were taken on my Blackberry (no room for a separate camera on the bike) and, hello!, it was raining, so I didn’t want to keep any electrical equipment out for any period of time.

After our rest stop, we headed down the FDR to the Queensboro bridge for my first taste of a hill climb.  I did ok, but the rain was starting to bug me.  We looped around Astoria Park, and then headed to Brooklyn.  By the time we got to the Brooklyn Bridge, which is a spot where you can leave the tour and head back into Manhattan, I was certainly debating doing just that.  I was wet.  Soaked even.  And certainly bordering on cranky.  My buddy Elka was riding with me then and I don’t think she’s heard the f-bomb dropped that many times since her days in the Marines (just kidding, E!).  Elka wasn’t hearing anything about leaving the tour, so we sludged on.  It was then that we realized we still had several miles (14?) left to go, and that was really depressing.  But we moved on!

Heading onto the BQE (closed to car traffic, like all our paths) was when I started to get a little freaked out.  We were able to move more quickly, but at the same time, it meant the rain was pounding down on us.  Plus, the other side of the road was open to traffic, so cars were splashing us from their puddles.  There was a REALLY big hill climb on the BQE, which I managed, but utterly lost it on the other side as my brakes failed when I was coasting down.  Maybe they were too wet?  Anyhow, it really slowed me down, not being able to take advantage of the speed from the downhill.

As we headed towards the Verrazano bridge, the defining moment of the ride, we found ourselves stopped on the BQE while 3 lanes merged into 1.  They didn’t want any wipeouts from riders, so they were slowing us down.  We spent almost 30 minutes up there, being whipped by cold winds coming off the harbor.  Many many F bombs were dropped here, as I wondered aloud to Elka why we were there, and tried to click my heels to transport me home to my warm bath.

Once we were able to ride again, we headed toward the  bridge.  At least I think we were heading to the bridge, everything was so clouded in fog.  As much as I was dreading the bridge, due to it being 10 minute hill climb, essentially, it was conquerable!  I decided that I was going to go for it all the way, and would not allow myself to stop and walk no matter how soggy I was.  I made it!  I made it all the way!  I was humming the theme to “Rocky” the whole time, but I made it.  I was so proud and took it as a reward for all the hard work I’ve been doing at the gym.

When we crossed the bridge and made it to the Festival, we added “muddy” to soaked – the fields were covered in it, and my sneakers were wrecked.  But I was so glad to see the NYSC provided lunches we got in our registration package, and the Starbucks truck where I got a most welcome hot cup of coffee.  I didn’t even mind the fact that we had 3 more miles to ride in Staten Island till we could get to the Ferry that would take us back to Manhattan.  I had done it – 42 miles on a bike in the rain.  An accomplishment to truly be proud of.

After leaving the Ferry, we rode back to the garage.  Some of us changed for the ride home.  I just took off my jacket, which now weighted about 10 pounds due to the rain it took on.  Yes, it’s waterproof, but because I didn’t tie it tight around my head, which would have been most uncomfortable combined with a bike helmet, rain came through under my neck, and by the end of the ride I was soaked.  No matter.  I came home, shaking and blue, and warmed up and rejoiced with the family.  I can say that I am totally looking forward to doing this next year, but if the forecast calls for rain, I might be content to watch it on a web cam from home!